1. Harnessing
technologies
to foster
creativity
Gráinne Conole,
The Open University, UK
Arhus University,
30th March 2011

2. Defining creativity
• Derived from Lation ‘creo’ to create/make
• About creating something new (physical
artefact or concept) that is novel and
valuable
• Ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules,
partners, relationships and create
meaningful new ideas, forms, methods,
interpretations

3. Why is it important?
• Essential skill to deal with today’s complex,
fast and changing soceity
• Discourse and collaboration are mediated
through a range of social and participatory
media

4. Aspects
• Process: mechanisms needed for creative
thinking
• Product: measuring creativity in people
• Person: general intellectual habits
(openness, ideas of ideation, autonomy,
expertise, exploratory and behavioural)
• Place: best circumstances to enable
creativity to flourish

5. Stages
• Preparation: identifying the problem
• Incubation: internalisation of the problem
• Intimation: getting a feeling for a solution
• Illumination: creativity burst forth
• Verification: idea is consciously verified,
elaborated and applied

6. Technologies
• Can promote creativity in new and
innovative ways
• Enable new forms of discourse,
collaboration and coopertation
• Access and repurpose knowledge in
different forms of representation
• Aggregation and scale - distributed and
collective

7. Limitless
• Unbounded
intelligence
• Unlocking
potential
• Distributed
cognition (people
and technologies)
Trailer

8. Key questions
• What is the nature of creativity?
• What are its key characteristics?
• What is the relationship between creativity and
general intelligence?
• How can creativity be fostered and supported?
• What is the nature of collaborative creative
practices?
• How can technologies be used to promote and
support creativity?

9. In terms of OER
• What is the relationship between creativity
and OER?
• How can creativity be used in terms of the
creation and use of OER?
• What new creative practices might result
through effective use of OER?

10. The future?
• Limitless potential of
technologies
• Individual, tools and
collective
• Augmented and
gesture technologies
• Blurring the
boundaries of real World Builder
and virtual worlds

11. References
• Loveless, A M (2007) Creativity, technology and learning – a
review of recent literature Futurelab., http://
archive.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/
Creativity_Review_update.pdf
• (http://robwall.ca/2009/03/10/creativity-is-the-new-
technology/)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvIQP-EBPqc
• http://vimeo.com/3365942
• http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2010/05/andrew-klavan-on-
how-21st-cent.html